Of Ashes and Dust
by Dr. Mayhem
Summary: How do you know if the line has been crossed? Just how easily can the ends be justified by the means? A once unflinchingly loyal Project Phoenix operative witnesses the atrocities of forced indoctrination and vows to have vengeance on The Illusive Man. However, one's past cannot be so easily pushed away. Begins during the Mars mission of ME3 with a darker, grittier outlook.
1. Chapter 1

**Of Ashes and Dust**

**Mars – 25****th**** September 2186 – 1300 hours**

"Soldiers, you know what's at stake here. Do what you must to get inside and pave the way for the rest of our strike force. Leave no trace of your existence there, and _leave no survivors_. I expect results."

In a fraction of a second, the hologram vanished into thin air, leaving the Cerberus shuttle to be enveloped by an all-encompassing silence which preyed on every bit of noise made by the 4 fully-armoured troopers sitting inside. The objectives set out by The Illusive Man certainly were simple, but there was far more to it than met the eye. Mark Gully wasn't under any illusions on just what surprises could be thrown at them, but they were experienced men of war. They could deal with it. Unless there was a full battalion of Alliance down there. At that point, The Illusive Man might even be a bit sympathetic with them and order them to carry out a tactical retreat!

The shuttle shuddered and shook slightly as they descended onto the dusty Martian surface. They were designated as being the first ones to land so that they could make headway into the facility, eliminate any possible immediate threats and secure it for a larger force to enter. It was made clear to them that even the researchers needed to be 'taken care of'. Why? Mark had no idea. If he was honest, it all seemed a bit…excessive, although he had learned not to question his orders over the years. Still, he was surprised that no one else had even hinted that they felt just a little uncomfortable about it, but he shrugged it off pretty easily; this was his job and he had trust in Cerberus. Why wouldn't he?

"Alright, Onyx, I want this over with ASAP. It doesn't matter who's in your way. To you, they should just be an enemy, nothing else." Mark, clad in the distinctive white Cerberus armour, wiped a drop of sweat off his brow before donning the helmet to complete the image. To his satisfaction, the seals were all properly locked down, and a few seconds later he jumped out of the shuttle letting the thrusters on his boots slow the descent to the floor. It only took a moment before each of the other five members of his squad were on the ground beside him. He made a quick series of hand gestures before shouldering the Cerberus Harrier and establishing a 360 degree view with his squad.

The squad itself consisted of people with a range of different talents and abilities, each able to complement one another. It gave them extensive capabilities over the unknown. Sure, they weren't as specialised as other squads may have been, but they were perfect for being sent into places where there was no time to observe and plan ahead. This was one of those times.

Jurgen Nielsen: programmer, hacker, tech lunatic…call him what you will, he was great at what he did. Give him your locked datapad to hold just for a minute, turn your back on him, and by the time you've looked back he'll already be well on his way to being able to mock you about those private files you didn't intend to tell anyone about. Look past that little…_aspect_ of him, and you'd be more than glad to have him around. Mark and Jurgen had known each other pretty much ever since they'd joined Cerberus, so a bit of banter between the two was a common sight.

Chen Lin: more than just a little bit quiet, Chen had simply been described in his dossier simply as 'a medic and CQB veteran who would be unwavering in the face of death.' That was the most important part of the dossier, anyway. The Illusive Man had been rather sparing with details, and Mark hadn't been able to speak to him before this mission. In fact, he hadn't even seen his face; it really didn't fill him with much confidence.

James Hill: there wasn't too much to say about him. He had arrived under basically the same circumstances as Chen, and his dossier was equally as brief. He was a sharpshooter. His aim was bloody brilliant, apparently. It did seem a bit cliché, but there had to be a reason why snipers were so commonly stereotyped as being silent. Mark wondered if it actually applied to James this time. Whatever the case was, Mark could only hope the guy justified his seemingly robotic persona. After all, he hadn't seen James' face either. The mission had come at them at such a pace, though, that Mark could understand the reasoning behind The Illusive Man's decision to assign two unknowns to his team at such short notice.

Then there was Mark Gully: he led Onyx team, and had done for a good year and a half. He leaned more towards the support role than anything else, often being the proverbial bulkhead on which to lean on. He was one of the early Project Phoenix operatives, but he only ever used his biotics in difficult combat scenarios. Biotics weren't to be trifled with.

"Hold up. Alliance patrol. Three. Take them out." No more information was needed for the troopers. The Alliance soldiers had their sights set elsewhere. Were they taking a break? It didn't matter. The only think they were going to find out was that it was their unlucky day. It should have been four quick, simple and hassle-free kills. Thankfully, it was just that. A few shots to each head and they slumped to the floor and against a without even a single cry of agony; just how Mark liked it.

They moved cautiously up to the outside walls of the facility, converging on a set of doors that led inside. "Doctor Coré, can you get us in?" Mark had opened up comms with their agent on the inside. He had done his part, so now Eva needed to do her part.

"Of course. Give me a moment." A calm, feminine voice responded to Mark. He didn't expect anything other than success from Eva, really. Neither did anyone else, and it was good to see her deliver.

So far, everything was going to plan, and that was reaffirmed as the holographic interface on the front of the doors began flashing erratically until it turned a bright green and disappeared completely, indicating that the doors had been accessed and opened. Each of the soldiers filed inside with an innate aura of professionalism and efficiency about them. Before they even knew it, the lift had equalised the pressure and they were on their way up into what seemed like a cargo hold of sorts.

"I'll be waiting for you and your squad in the archives. You'll be able to handle the few Alliance guards you see."

"The rest will be researchers?" Mark enquired, letting the rifle drop loosely down by his side. He glanced around briefly, happy to see the rest of his squad – people he'd known well for absolutely years – securing the perimeter.

"Yes, but there is someone else."

"Someone we should be worried about?" There was a much greater urgency in the Cerberus trooper's voice. Whatever Eva was talking about seemed to be concerning her a little if there was something to worry _her_ then that was more than enough to worry _him_.

"Yes. An Asari. You should know the name: Liara T'Soni."

_Liara. _That name hit him like a bombshell. It was like something physically smacked the air out of his lungs. He hated firefights against Asari. Their biotics could wreak havoc with anything, but Liara…Mark had seen just what she was able to do and it didn't bode well for them. It also meant that Shepard surely wouldn't be far behind if Liara T'Soni was around here.

After a short pause, Mark replied. "We'll deal with her." A simple statement, but it carried a lot of weight. In truth, he was no xenophobe, but he was young and disillusioned when he decided to join Cerberus. The only reason he decided to stay was because there were certainly a ton of perks. He had joined with a friend, too. He'd since gone to work on something top-secret with Cerberus. Knowing the kinds of experiments Cerberus got up to, it was likely to be fucking crazy. Then again, everything in Cerberus was top-secret, so it could have been anything.

Mark had stayed on the frontlines, though. Besides, there had to be some people to protect Humanity. Cerberus had demonstrated that when the Collectors were attacking those colonies. Why was The Illusive Man adamant on killing all of these innocents, though? He enjoyed the thrill of tracer fire flying over his head and bouncing off of everything around him, but he'd never been ordered to do anything like this before, neither was it something he enjoyed.

Mark could only shake his head and let out an irritated sigh to himself. None of this made any sense. The way The Illusive Man was throwing Mark and his squad around, it was like he was treating them as if they were mindless animals who wouldn't ever question their loyalty to him. For now, Mark had no reason not to follow the orders. Maybe the researchers had some sort of evidence that could bring Cerberus down for completely unjustifiable reasons? Yeah, something like that...

But regardless of everything, Cerberus brought Shepard back to life! Whom they were now tasked with eliminating again...

"Sir."

"Chen?" Now his body and brain were snapped back into gear. "Why are you calling me sir? We've gone over this already. It's just Mark."

There was no reply, only a blank look through that god-awful helmet. Mark gripped his Harrier a bit tighter, now holding it in both hands and close to his chest. They were still being abnormally quiet and-No, no, it was nothing. They just wanted to get the mission done, that was all. He began marching away from Chen, shrugging it all off. Everybody needed clear minds for this, and it felt like he was the only one who didn't.

"Form up on me!" As they did so, Mark turned to look at them all and gave them the next orders. "Doctor Coré has set all of the cameras around this place to play on a loop. They won't notice we're here until we make it very obvious. In the next room we'll need to disable the automated turrets so that the rest of our force can roll in unhindered in the Makos. I don't want The Illusive Man on our backs because we failed."

"And maybe we can all enjoy a nice game of chess after this!"

"Alright, Jurgen, do your job and I'm sure we can arrange something!" Yeah, Mark hadn't really counted on the occasional quips and inappropriate comments of the ever-present Jurgen. It was a nice little informality which was an absolute godsend for him, personally. Jurgen was the only one of the four in Onyx that he'd known for years previous to this. Chen and James were replacements for two regulars in his squad who had been killed by Batarian mercs in their last mission. They were friends. Good friends. But this was war, and war was the most unforgiving of enemies. Mark and Jurgen were forced to try and push it out of their minds, lest they became the next victims of war.

Jurgen had laughed, but it was poorly disguised as a proper one. Mark knew him, and he knew he was nervous. Not about the completion of the mission itself, no, but the fact they were killing so many civilians.

Nevertheless, they moved forward, entering the next room through an already unlocked door. As expected, there were civilians. Seven in total. 14 eyes were trained on the uninvited troopers as they raised their weapons

"Hey! Cerber-" One shot to the chest later, and the man was lying dead on the floor, blood already pooling around his limp body. Mere seconds later, and everyone was eliminated, either slumped against the once pristine walls, draped over consoles or in a heap on the floor. Mark's expression was stoic as he looked around the whole place, trying to avoid any contact with the different corpses littered around. It was a control room, as was made evident with the plethora of holographic displays, terminals and other consoles. The automated turret controls would be here somewhere. Jurgen would likely know where.

"Jurgen, can you get those turrets offline?"

"Sure thing." The tech expert of the group walked up to one of the terminals, pulling one of the bodies off of the terminal in question and dumping it onto the floor. He brought up the display and glanced up to Mark. "Call them in, they'll be well offline by the time they all get here."

Mark nodded, but Jurgen was already focused back on the terminal. He opened comms with the other Cerberus soldiers. "Cobra platoon, you're free to enter the vicinity and make your way into the facility. Turrets are down. I repeat, turrets are down."

"We hear you, Onyx. ETA 3 minutes." Was the reply. Now they just needed to s

Before doing anything else, Mark released a thermal clip and popped another back in. "So, are the turrets actually down?"

"You ever doubted me?" Jurgen remarked with a chuckle after a brief pause, walking back around with his weapon in hand.

"It was that easy?"

"Okay, I may have cheated just a _little_." He held up one of the researcher's ID cards and shrugged, tossing it to the floor.

"Well, if you can 'cheat' with any other things like that and do it right, then I'm not bothered." Mark patted Jurgen on the shoulder, smiling under the helmet. "We'll have backup soon enough, then we can go play some chess."

* * *

**A/N: Don't worry, there'll be much more progression of the story in the next chapter! This was just to set the scene and give a little bit of insight into the characters. Also, regarding the date I used at the start (25th September): I couldn't find anything that could tell me at what point in 2186 the events of ME3 began, only that it would be after the 11th of January...If anyone has any sort of information about that, then that'd be awesome!**

**Remember to leave a review if you liked it, or if you find something that I could improve on!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: enjoy the next chapter! Things are beginning to pick up in speed a lot now.**

**Chapter 2**

**Mars – 25th September 2186 – 1315 Hours**

Well this was turning into a walk in the park. Actually, no…Maybe even a walk in the park was giving the whole thing too much credit. There was very little Alliance presence considering the magnitude of the Mars facility and what it was researching. There were still pockets of resistance, but they were quickly dealt with. Now Mark simply had to tell people where to go and what to do. If anything had seemed too good to be true in his life, it was most certainly this moment.

"Alpha, Charlie and Delta teams go through the mess hall, then labs and down to the trams. Secure them. No one gets in or out who isn't Cerberus. The Archives are your top priority. Eliminate any Alliance in your way and protect Doctor Coré at any cost."

"Sir? What about the scientists?" One trooper stepped forward, and after a brief pause Mark looked over in his direction.

It was true that he strongly disagreed with The Illusive Man's methods of handling this operation. He had willingly put himself forward for Project Phoenix – and come out of it alive and kicking - yet that didn't mean he thought TIM's orders were unquestionable. However, it was also true that if they let any of them go then they'd undoubtedly raise the alarm and alert more Alliance reinforcements from elsewhere. If that happened this mission would likely crumble into pieces before his very eyes. Then again, surely Hackett and the rest of the SA would be too preoccupied with the Reapers. At the same time, though, whatever it was that The Illusive Man was after in this facility must have been a hugely important find; to ignore an emergency broadcast from here would be an absurd notion, to put it simply. Hell, Liara T'Soni was here! That should put it into perspective if nothing else did.

Mark could only take refuge behind the helmet and let his conflicted emotions be covered by it. On the outside he gave off the impression that he was unflinching, stoic, and had everything under control. What a lie that was.

"If they're unarmed, detain them. Give them a chance. If they fire on you first, eliminate them." He closed his eyes for a second and clenched the fist that wasn't holding the gun. To him, it was a compromise that had to be made. It may have been hypocritical as fuck – he'd killed a couple of civi's just 10 minutes ago – but there were so many still alive, and he'd much rather be a hypocrite than a heartless bastard. They could finish this without any more innocent casualties. He didn't see why anyone else would disagree with him.

"But The Illusi-"

"Can it, soldier! The Illusive Man isn't here. You can take it up with him personally if you have a problem with it." Mark gave the anonymous trooper a piercing, venomous glare through both of their helmets. They may not have been able to see each other, but purely imagining the other person's face seemed to have the desired effect. The whole façade of anonymity was unnatural. To him that was the case, at least. Soldiers were treated like machines with machine hearts and machine minds, but were they really anything more than that?

The sound of at least 30 pairs of boots clanging against the metal flooring followed the orders. Eventually. No one would be getting through them without some serious firepower. By the time the Alliance got anymore reinforcements over here, Cerberus would be long gone.

"Bravo to the Makos. If anyone tries to force their way into the facility, then you'll meet them head on." Mark's body language visibly relaxed, and he turned his gaze onto bravo team. "The same applies to you with civilians." The squad of ten soldiers immediately made their way out of the room which had been drafted up as their temporary HQ and headed towards the Makos. It was obvious that this force didn't have the capabilities to cover this whole facility in great numbers, but that wasn't what they were here for. A quick smash and grab was on the cards, and Mark had to admit that The Illusive Man was playing his hand well in terms of tactics and timing. A large Alliance resistance wasn't forecasted to be here, and thankfully that came out to be completely true.

"Echo team and Fire team Onyx-" Onyx being the small team Mark led "-will patrol the general vicinity for any disturbances. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir."

Good, no objections there. Still, James and Chen had nothing to say. It was getting a bit strange in Mark's eyes. Unsurprisingly, they had much more important things to focus on for now which included not dying and not pissing The Illusive Man off so much that he decided to drop you off in the middle of Tuchanka.

"Alright, let's move!" Mark barked out the orders and in an instant they had split up into three groups, dashing off in three different directions so as to cover as much of the place as possible without compromising too much defence and offense capabilities: fire team Onyx in one direction, and five of Echo in each of the two others.

* * *

A good few minutes of silence came after they had split up. There seemed to be nothing around the place. No Alliance, no researchers, and not even Liara could be found. Either she was secretly an expert assassin, able to hide even in plain sight, or they weren't looking hard enough. Probably the latter.

"Hey, good call back there."

"Oh, shit!" Mark hissed, flinching quite dramatically inside the armour before making a swift movement to turn down the volume of his comms. "Jurgen? Dammit, that sounded like a bloody bomb going off in my ear." When did he put the volume up to fucking maximum? He could swear on his own life that he didn't. Unless it was…

"I'm glad you appreciated my little…tweak to your systems." Jurgen couldn't help but chuckle just a bit, despite his efforts to supress the laughter. If anything, that even made it sound worse. He stepped over to Mark and punched him lightly in the shoulder. If Mark hadn't expected something like that to happen, then Jurgen was sure he was off his rocker.

"What? When did you-?" Mark shook his head in annoyance, not at Jurgen, but at himself for not seeing the whole thing coming. He'd known the guy for long enough to realise what kind of antics he could get up to. "-Ugh, never mind." The Project Phoenix Biotic rolled his shoulders in an attempt to get a bit more relaxed; he didn't dare imagine what else Jurgen could have done to his armour – or anything else that involved electronics for that matter – if he'd managed to screw around with it so easily already. To put it simply, it didn't bode well. Not. One. Bit.

"Hey, don't worry it's private comms." The subtle yet obvious accent of the six feet five inch tall Scandinavian resonated through the silence.

"Okay, good, so…What the fuck else did you mess with?" Mark's tone of voice wasn't condescending, angry or anything like that, but instead it gave off a sense of joviality and vivacity. Jurgen wasn't an idiot, so he knew the limits of what he could do without jeopardising someone's safety, especially a good friend's; he'd had experience in being a trickster of sorts ever since he joined Cerberus. If Mark's counting hadn't gone to shit over the last few years that accounted for at least 2920 days of rigging peoples' comm systems to being full volume. With the occasional day off, of course.

"Nothing, nothing, don't worry."

"Well, if my weapon suddenly explodes in my face and I die, you're going to owe me a few beers in hell when you get there, too." Mark smirked, punching Jurgen on the shoulder with all the same gusto that Jurgen himself had done so earlier. "Anyway, what was all that about a good call?" Wow, they'd gone off on a bit of a tangent…

"About the civi's." His tone of voice had turned serious within a matter of seconds. It was obvious why. "The Illusive Man is out of his fucking mind. Only a year ago he was protecting Human colonies from the Collectors." Mark shuddered at the mere thought of fighting those bugs again. Talk about nightmares…Those things were like Hell's offspring. "That's why I joined Cerberus; to protect Humanity. I didn't join to do *this*." He looked somewhere behind him, gesturing sharply with one hand. "This is something that I'd expect the Reapers to do. Show no mercy to anyone." He paused for a minute, but continued to remain vigilant; Cerberus trained their soldiers hard for a reason.

"I know, I know. If The Illusive Man doesn't like it, he can tell me." Mark agreed wholeheartedly, but right now the last thing he wanted was a drop in morale or for them to let their guard down. "But look...we just need to do our job and get out in one piece. After that we'll see how it goes." The Alliance were no pushovers, and Mark was sure to make that clear to everyone before they came here. Complacency was often the primary reason as to why people became the architects of their own demise. A fate no one wanted.

"Yeah, I'll go with that, but I don't kn-Oh shit, CONTACT FRONT!" Jurgen threw himself down against the nearest thing he could take cover behind. The bulky armour crashed against the metal crate, and the three others followed suit by scurrying behind walls, railings and even desks.

Mark found his shields had taken several hits once he got into relative safety. Tiny fragments of metal were seen ricocheting off of the surroundings at immensely fast speeds with sparks the only indicator as to where they hit. He hated ambushes. Though, he was one hell of an adrenaline junkie, and this provided just what he wanted.

"Numbers?" Mark attempted to take a glance out the side of the cover just after his shields had recharged, but he was quickly met with a barrage of fire from the Alliance soldiers on the other side of the corridor.

"Three Alliance soldiers plus the Asari." James relayed the information back to Mark and the others. He seemed to be calmness personified, and in this situation, that was all that mattered.

"Okay, you all know how we roll. Attack is the best form of defence. Pressurise them!" Mark hollered over the comms and glanced around the rather drab looking metallic hallway just to make a mental note of everyone's positions. "Chen, James, Jurgen: lay down suppressive fire as I move up! On my mark...MARK!"

All it took was that one word before they were able to move forward. Their shields took a good few hits, although that was expected. Mark's barriers were depleted completely due to the fact he was on point, but he didn't care. His strategy of simply bludgeoning his way through had worked.

"Focus fire on the Asari! Don't let her get a clean run at using her biotics!" Jurgen had noticed a very distinctive blue aura around the alien, and he'd be damned if he was going to let that shit slide. As requested, the majority of the shots fired were centred on her. She was still able to pop a quick flurry of biotics at James, including what looked like a warp, but even after the warp slammed against him, James still remained standing. He and the two others were providing ample covering fire, and Mark was about to unleash his own wildcard: biotics.

Letting his assault rifle drop to the floor, Mark activated a biotic whip from both wrists. He didn't stop for any niceties or a little chat with the enemy soldier in front of him, and in one swift movement swung the whips around his head before making a brutal connection with the soldier's chests and legs sending him back at least a good 6 or 7 metres.

"Mark, get into cover!"

He followed this up by smashing the whips down on the ground creating a shockwave which threw another of the Alliance soldiers gracelessly out of his cover. The impact of his body against the wall looked like something which could break bones.

"Mark!"

There were only two left now. Liara was in shock. He could see her expression; it was one of fear, horror…He could smell blood now. So close-

"Mark, get the fuck down!"

The biotic felt himself get pulled to the ground against his will. He was ready to tear whoever it was into pieces, but just about managed to stop himself when he noticed who it was. The whips deactivated.

"Jurgen, what are you…ugh…what are you doing?"

"James is down!" The Danish-born Cerberus soldier barely stopped to talk as took down the final hostile, barring Liara.

"And…Chen?" Mark took off his helmet and tossed it to the ground, running a hand through his messy, brown short hair; it was all but useless now. A few shards of metal from the weapons of the Alliance soldiers had cracked it, destroying a fair number of the vital systems inside. Even after taking it off, his vision was still hazy, and there was a constant buzzing inside his head. What the hell just happened? At the moment, he didn't have any idea.

"Injured, but still fighting and-Oh, fuck, singularity! It's trapped Chen."

"Is Liara still fighting?"

"Who?"

"Doctor T'Soni."

"What are you talking about?"

"The damn Asari, Jurgen!"

"She's running. Should we follow?"

"I…No, we have casualties." It was a difficult decision for Mark to make. She was vulnerable now that she was running, but what would she be running to? He couldn't risk it. Not with just two people, and he couldn't leave two of his squad here. Plus, he felt like crap himself. "Come on."

They left the overturned desk but paid good mind to remain wary of any other sudden threats. Mark made sure not to pay too attention to the three Alliance bodies. He didn't know if they were actually dead, but he didn't care right now. They weren't posing any threat. Hell, they weren't even moving.

The two arrived at James' body first, as he, unlike Chen, wasn't moving at all. Mark noticed multiple holes in his armour. More worryingly, though, one through the helmet itself. It was still possible that he may have survived, but Mark didn't hold out too much hope.

"Alright, Jurgen, I need some medi-gel for these wo-Oh...shit…" Mark whispered the last few words, and ultimately, words failed him at that point. In fact, words wouldn't have even been enough to describe what was in front of him. Taking off James' helmet hadn't revealed anything Human. It was anything but that. Mark wasn't unfamiliar with that look, though. As much as he wished he couldn't, he recognised it; the Geth had used Dragon's Teeth to create Husks. They were abominations. But if James had been turned into this…thing, what about…

"Jurgen, take off your helmet." Mark pushed himself up from the floor. His hand had moved instinctively closer to the pistol on his thigh.

"What are you-"

"Take off. The fucking. Helmet." He didn't have time for all this bullshit.

"Mark-"

"NOW!"

"Okay, okay!" Surprised at Mark's sudden outburst, Jurgen held up his hands defensively, slowly removing the helmet.

Mark breathed a mental sigh of utter relief as it came past his eyes. He was normal. Maybe it was just a one off thing? One of The Illusive Man's crazy experiments? He couldn't take any chances.  
"Take off Chen's, too,"

"Alright, but…you better have a good explanations for all this screwing around."

'A good explanation would be understatement of the century.' Mark thought. If this was any other time, there'd surely be a smirk on his face.

"Mark, there's nothing-" Jurgen's voice faltered. He didn't need to say anything else. The silence answered for him.

"-Wrong?" Mark cast a wry smile in his friend's direction. Well…maybe that was being a bit too nice. It was more like a twisted hybrid of a smile and frown.

"This…this is…I don't even know anymore. What's The Illusive Man been doing?"

"Experimenting. I should know a thing or two about that." Mark muttered, turning his back on Jurgen for a second whilst in deep thought. "They aren't Human anymore. Not really." He turned back again, nodding at Jurgen even if he didn't truly know what that meant. In Mark's mind, he didn't have to say anything else. He took the Carnifex from its magnetic holster and without hesitation fired two shots: one in James' head, and the other in Chen's. The bodies jerked suddenly, and the sound of the heavy pistol firing echoed through the whole corridor for what seemed like an eternity before it came to an end. He holstered it again and went to pick up his assault rifle.

"Jurgen, this isn't the Cerberus that we joined 10 years ago. First, experiments on biotics, then The Illusive Man ordering us to kill civilians, and now this." Mark gestured wildly to the two dead Cerberus bodies of Chen and James. "We're being played with like we're some sort of toy soldiers that can be discarded and then immediately replaced."

"So what do we do? Go running to the Alliance?" His voice had an air of incredulity about it as he went to pick his helmet back up. Mark stopped him by kicking it away.

"To put it more eloquently, yes we're defecting. Don't put your helmet on, though. You'll just seem like another Cerberus soldier. We aren't."

"Okay, but how are we-"

"Sir, this is alpha team. We've located the Asari. She's crawling through an air duct. Permission to pursue?"

"I…" Mark trailed off. He was completely caught off guard by the sudden comms activity. There'd been so much to take in over the last 15 minutes that he'd forgotten about the fact that he was the highest ranking soldier here. "Do not pursue. Don't leave yourself vulnerable on the ground. Only attack her if she attacks you." He was still a Cerberus soldier to everyone other than himself and Jurgen. He had to keep up the false image, and giving out orders was part of that image. Maybe it'd even come in handy somehow.

"Echo team here. Disturbances in the cargo bay and no response from Bravo at the Makos, sir. Orders?"

More activity? Was it Alliance reinforcements? Mark hesitated before answering. "Get down there and secure the area. We'll link up with you."

Mark didn't need a reply. He had already brought up a small, holographic map from his omni-tool and made sure to head towards the cargo hold. Happy with where he was going, he popped a new thermal clip into his Harrier, beckoning to Jurgen with a subtle head motion.

"So, what have you got planned?" Jurgen enquired, following Mark step-by-step.

"A very messy resignation message."

* * *

Well, they were at the cargo hold, and through this next door Mark was sure they were going to get Hell thrown at them in the form of a barrage of fire from whatever was on the other side. The only thing he could hope for was that a Reaper hadn't suddenly taken a detour and landed here. All joking aside, though, if it was Alliance then he had no idea how they would react.

"Get that door open." 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained' was along the right lines of Mark's own train of thought. It was probably better if he just didn't plan at all. You couldn't plan for every single scenario, and that was what Mark carried on trying to do. To no avail, obviously. Once he thought he had everything covered, something else popped up, then another and then another. That was why he was so bad at timed chess games...Those '5-seconds-to-make-your-move' games always really pissed him.

The door then burst open with an almighty bang, and the 12 strong force of Cerberus soldiers filed onto the upper balcony which looked down onto the cargo bay itself. Each of them took cover and, as expected, the bulletproof pane of glass behind them had to withstand a barrage of super-heated and -propelled metal shavings. Perhaps what was rather unexpected, though, was how little and unsustained the initial barrage actually was. This definitely wasn't the large force Mark was expecting.

"Shepard, Ashley, singularity coming up!"

Mark leaned his head against the railing and glanced over to Jurgen whilst the other troops from echo team battled it out.

"It's Commander Shepard and Liara. And...some other Alliance woman. Talk about girl power."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Good thing?" Mark laughed quietly, grinning all the time. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed two of the Cerberus soldiers get lifted into the air, completely at the mercy of Liara's singularity, and the simultaneously pummelled by rounds. "If the Commander was a bitch I think we'd all know it. She'll be willing to hear us out. For now we just need to eliminate the rest of these Cerberus bastards."

Jurgen looked understandably surprised at first, but his expression swiftly calmed. "I'll go with it, but...I hope you're right about Commander Shepard."

"Let's not keep them waiting, then." Mark cracked a smile a nodded in acknowledgement. They both loaded their weapons, Jurgen waiting for the signal. "Soldier!" The biotic pulled the nearest trooper back into cover.

"Si-" Mark had raised the Carnifex to his-no, _it's_ head and pulled the trigger even before the word had finished being spoken. The sheer stopping power of the pistol at such close range blew a hole clean through the whole head mass as if it wasn't even there. The body slumped to the floor, but no one else noticed it was as a result of friendly fire. Well...as it were, it wasn't so friendly fire.

The next four soldiers all fell from the sudden assault on their flank. Jurgen provided the hammer blow, crippling the shields with an overload and ripping into the armour with his assault rifle. They stood no chance. It was only too late when they realised how they were getting so decimated. The last couple of soldiers managed to turn their attentions towards Mark and Jurgen, squeezing off a few shots in the process, but it was in vain because his body hit the floor lifelessly a moment later.. Any other soldier surely would have run from the scene. These weren't any other soldiers though. They'd been modified. Mark could only imagine that it was against their will…

"This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Put down your weapons or we _will_ open fire."

Glancing over his shoulder, Mark's eyes opened wide in surprise at the three weapons which had been pointed at them with no warning.

"Yeah, just putting them down now…relax, don't worry…" He reassured the trio below them, watching as Shepard began making her way up to the balcony as quickly as she could in order to get a closer look and to get into a flanking position. Well at least they weren't the 'shoot first, ask questions later' sort of bunch. Mark never understood that philosophy, really. He was keen to keep it that way, too, so he swiftly tossed the pistol to the side, doing the same with the assault rifle and making sure his hands were in full view at all times. Thankfully, Jurgen seemed to have cottoned on to the idea of making this as friendly as possible, too, and he followed suit until both of their guns were visibly on the floor.

"If I'm being honest with you, even _I_wasn't expecting that, and I've seen my fair share of strange things." The Commander kept her assault rifle's aim trained directly onto the two now _ex_-Cerberus troopers, but her stance relaxed a little more and she smiled, albeit very subtly. Her speech seemed to reflect that, too, with Liara and the other woman taking it as a sort of cue to do similar. "

"Shepard, be careful. The one in the darker armour is some sort of biotic of the like I haven't seen before. Not any Human, anyway."

"Thanks for the heads up, Liara."

"Commander, they're Cerberus soldiers! You know how they operate. They can't be trusted!"

"I never said I was going to trust them, Ash."

"We're not Cerberus anymore." Mark remained standing with his hands in the air. He glanced sharply to Jurgen, but then back to the three others. He was wary about taking his eye off of them, even if they did seem an alright bunch.

"How can we be sure? You were the one who attacked and killed three Alliance soldiers right before my eyes." Liara's grip tightened on the SMG.

"You were the ones who attacked us first, and I'll have you know that it was my decision not to let some Cerberus soldiers follow you through the air ducts!" Mark's voice rose gradually. He let his hands drop down to his side and pointed accusatively at the Asari. "Hell, you might not even be here if it wasn't for me."

"What?" Liara's expression was incredulous at the statement made by Mark. "I can handle myself perfectly well against two of your mindless Cerberus troopers. You don't know me."

"It didn't seem like you could handle yourself when you ran away from me and Jurgen!" He stepped forward as far as he could, leaning on the railing. Right now he'd even forgotten about Shepard standing just to his right. "And frankly, I'm surprised Commander Shepard allowed you onto her team." Mark remarked snidely. He was enjoying this…"You couldn't even protect those soldiers from, _Liara_. They probably had families somewhere."

"You'll regret that!"

"ENOUGH!" Shepard hollered, somehow managing to shut both Liara and Mark up in an instant. Mark certainly wasn't going to dare interrupt her now. She sounded fucking _fierce._It was like she was ready just to bite your head if you made one wrong move. "Liara, stand down!" She turned her attention onto Mark and Jurgen. "What do you two mean by 'not Cerberus anymore'?"

"All you need to do…is remove one of their helmets. Trust me, that'll answer your questions." Mark didn't want to make any sort of sudden movement anywhere, including down to the dead troopers; he had no idea what Shepard was thinking at the moment, and he didn't want to take that risk, really.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I have no reason to lie to you. Me and Jurgen here just took out these soldiers. We're outnumbered, outgunned and outmatched. We're not crazy."

"That seems like a bit of a hypocritical thing to say…"

"Liara!" Shepard sighed and nodded to herself, she'd made her decision, and began walking over to one of the bodies. She hesitated for a second once she knelt down, but her focus remained set on finding out whether Mark was telling the truth. Liara and the other woman – if Mark heard Shepard correctly, she was called Ash - had made their way up next to Shepard, though their weapons were still drawn, Liara's more so than Ash's. "Here goes nothing." The N7 Spectre carefully placed two hands on the helmets and removed it, unveiling what Mark and Jurgen suspected it would.

"Oh my God…"

"By the Goddess, what _is_ that?"

Ash and Liara both tried to suppress their feelings of disturbance and dismay one after another, but what befell them demanded more than just silent acceptance.

"I know where this is from…" Shepard trailed off, but didn't take her eyes off of the face which lay before her.

"Husks. The Geth used them. And the Collectors." Jurgen stood forward, his tall frame towering over everyone else. "Whatever The Illusive Man is doing can't be good."

"Why are you two not like this?"

"We don't know. I fear we were next, though. This mission came at such a surprise to everyone that I don't think The Illusive Man could send anyone but us in, despite the fact that we hadn't been…experimented on like that." Jurgen's eyes lingered on the inhuman form which sat slumped against the side of the rails for a few seconds before looking back to Shepard. He continued making a case for himself and Mark. "Look, whatever you're here for, we can help. Mark is in charge of the platoon that came to secure this facility. The others still don't know we're defecting, so we can pull a few strings and help you get around some pretty dangerous engagements."

"He's right. There are still at least 30 or 40 other troops around here somewhere. Most of them have secured the trams which link up to the Archives."

"That's where we're headed. You can get us there with minimal trouble?" Shepard enquired, getting back to her feet. Mark was thankful that she truly wanted their help. Maybe his crazy plan would work after all…

"Yes, but…" Mark trailed off and gave Jurgen a quick glance over his shoulder. The big man flashed a brief smile and nodded. "…but if we do help you then we'll ultimately become fugitives. On The Illusive Man's naughty list, I guess you could say. You aren't looking for a team to recruit, are you?"

"If only…" Shepard smirked and rubbed the back of her neck. "More like the whole Universe."

"So is it a deal?"

"Kate, you aren't honestly suggesting that we're allowing two Cerberus soldiers aboard the Normandy?" Liara exclaimed. She seemed eager to try and overturn the Commander's decision, but Mark suspected it was just because of him that she was acting like this.

"Liara, don't worry. I'll get them checked out. May even do a little bit of research into their backgrounds myself to make doubly sure." Shepard gestured for Liara and Ash to follow her. "But if they hold true on their end of the deal, we can only hold true on our end, too. Besides, if we have two people who are veterans in the Cerberus ranks, the information they have could be vital. So yes, for now it's a deal. What are your names, by the way?"

"I'm Mark Gully and the big guy here is Jurgen Nielsen." Mark jerked a thumb in the direction of the dark blond-haired Dane.

"I hope you aren't sympathising with them too much, Shepard…"

"Ash, please. Do I look like I've been messed around with by Cerberus when they put me back together? Just trust me on this. Anyway, we can't waste much more time here. We have some Prothean data to grab. Let's move!"

**A/N: So, a much longer chapter this time! (5 thousand words is a lot for me, mmkay? :P) Plus we got to have a bit of interaction between Shepard & Co. and Mark and Jurgen. Let's see where it goes from here, eh? Also, a bit of tension there between Liara and Mark. Then again, who can blame her for being so paranoid around someone who tried to kill her earlier on? The world is an odd place!**

**Remember to leave a review! Follow and favourite the story if you're liking it so far! It'd be much appreciated. **

**Until next time!**


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